mitigation

noun

mit·​i·​ga·​tion ˌmi-tə-ˈgā-shən 

plural mitigations

: the act of mitigating something or the state of being mitigated : the process or result of making something less severe, dangerous, painful, harsh, or damaging

mitigation of suffering

mitigation of punishment

There was, in sum, a period during the Cold War … when a mitigation of the Cold War, including a renegotiation of some of its most troublesome tensions, was possible or even probable.

—John Lukacs

Examples of mitigation in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The economic development bill mandates mediation if the two sides do not enter into a community mitigation agreement by May 1. —Gayla Cawley, Boston Herald, 3 Feb. 2025

Alongside today's announcement post, an accompanying o3-mini system card goes into more detail on the testing and safety mitigations that went into o3-mini before deployment. —Ars Technica, 31 Jan. 2025

Californians pay among the highest electricity rates in the country, the largest portions of which come from new hikes for wildfire mitigation and rooftop solar programs. —Calmatters, The Mercury News, 30 Jan. 2025

Prudence may thus demand devising a mitigation strategy in the interim on the off chance—even if remote—that the asteroid could hit. —Jonathan O'Callaghan, Scientific American, 30 Jan. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

mitigation

noun

mit·​i·​ga·​tion ˌmit-ə-ˈgā-shən 

1

: the act of mitigating or state of being mitigated

the cure, prevention, or mitigation of disease

—Encyclopedia Americana

2

: something that mitigates

a large number of drugs and mitigations … at the clinic

—The Journal of the American Medical Association